INSURANCE FOR TRANSPORT OPERATORS

Whether you are a sole operator owner driver, an operator of a small fleet of vehicles, or a larger logistics operation, having the right insurance to cover your business operations is important. We can help you obtain insurance that suits your business.

Whether that is cover for your trucks, trailers, and liability or for the goods you carry or other business risks like Cyber or your customers not paying you, we're here to help.

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Transport Insurance Package

This insurance package designed for transport operators and covers many of the primary risks for a transport operator, including:

Damage for your Motor Vehicles / Trucks / Trailers and Hired in Trailers and the damage caused to property owned by third parties whilst using the vehicle. We can help you arrange the cover that you need, whether that is comprehensive Truck Insurance or Third Party Only Liability insurance.

Business Liability Insurance for your business activities as a transport operator outside of the truck. This could be picking up parcels, deliveries, visits to a customer’s premise or their visitation to your business premise.

Transport Operators “Carriers Liability” and Transport operators “Carriers Cargo or Goods in Transit” Insurance. These two covers both relate to insurance for customer’s goods that you are making delivery for.

The first, Carriers Cargo insurance is cover which responds to damage to your customers goods for theft, pilferage or non delivery, damage during loading or unloading the goods, with Accidental Damage Cargo Insurance available.

Carriers liability is for damage or loss relating to a breach of the delivery conditions within the consignment note, if you don’t use a consignment note, this cover isn’t required as it only responds to a consignment note breach (liability)

In some policies both covers are given automatically, and it is possible to take both covers if you occasionally use a consignment note.

Financial Protection Cover can also be included. This could be loss of income or your ongoing lease payments (depending on the option you select) whilst the vehicle off the road receiving repairs. It is often not an automatic cover and must be included specifically by request.

24 Hour Accident Support and Assistance s available to ensure that you and your drivers have access to help when they need it most.

What other insurance policies may you require in addition to a Transport Insurance Policy?

BUSINESS AND Depot Insurance

If you operate from a depot, you may require cover for damage to or theft of your property at the depot such as your office equipment or your customers goods at your warehouse. You may also be required under your lease agreement to insure for glass, liability, or machinery breakdown. The liability component could be included in the above mentioned transport insurance if selected.

Contractual Liability

Whilst incidental contractual liability insurance may be insured by some liability insurance policies, it often excludes liability that would not have existed without the contract. This exclusion of the included cover generally will make most policies not actually cover any contractual liabilities arising from any contract that you enter into with customers or suppliers.

Directors Liability & MANAGEMENT Insurance

As the director of a company, you can be held personally liable for decisions you or your staff make on your behalf in the running of your business. These decisions may result in an alleged breach of employment law (harassment, discrimination, bullying, unfair dismissal), trade practices act, environmental protection, or workplace health & safety laws. A directors liability or management liability insurance policy generally protects the company and any innocent parties by paying for defence cover to defend against such allegations against you as a director and / or the business entity.

Environmental Liability

As a Transport Operator or contractor, you may be responsible for environmental cleanup costs associated with a contamination that may arise from your depot or where you park your truck(s) when not in use. This risk is increased if you service your vehicles with an in house or onsite mechanical workshop or your own onsite diesel tanks.

Whilst some public liability policies do provide ‘pollution liability’ they are often restricted to a sudden and unforseable release of contaminants, such as a diesel tank impacted by a forklift suddenly leaks provided such impact wasn’t a forseeable event. As a result of the limitations in a public liability policy and the potential for significant contamination cleanup costs, it is possible to insure for your environmental liability insurance as a Transport Operator & Property Owner.

Trade Credit Insurance

Trade Credit Insurance provides cover for your unsecured debtors in the event that your debtor becomes insolvent or unable to pay their debt to you whilst within your credit terms. The policy can provide up to 90% of the outstanding income owed to you. This is not a type of invoice factoring but an insurance policy that responds to one specific debtor if they are unable to pay. This will be particularly important if you choose to wholesale your goods to other business providing them with credit terms in which to make a payment after they have placed their order.

For some savvy business owners, this type of insurance can be used to help them grow by underwriting the risk associated with supplying to large corporate customers who require credit terms often at 90 days end of month as part of their conditions to supply. This type of insurance helps reduce the risk that this new large customer wont make payment when the time comes.

Workers Compensation

Workers Compensation is compulsory in most states for employers. In NSW for instance, if you pay more than $7,500 in wages, including casual labour and including goods or accommodation in lieu of monetary payments, it is compulsory for a workers compensation policy to be in place. This also includes directors of a Pty Ltd company, even if it is the family business.

We can assist you with Workers Compensation Insurance in the following states & territories

New South Wales Workers Compensation

ACT Workers Compensation

Victorian Workers Compensation

Tasmanian Workers Compensation

Western Australia Workers Compensation

Northern Territory Workers Compensation

As workers compensation insurance only covers you during working hours, you should also consider reviewing your life insurance, income protection, or injury insurance for you and your family on a 24 / 7 basis to cover you for injuries outside of the work environment.

If you operate as a sole trader or partnership, or are a director of a pty ltd company in a state that doesn’t cover directors and are as a result unable to arrange cover for yourself under workers compensation insurance, you may wish to consider personal injury / accident insurance or a business continuation expenses policy.

A personal accident & sickness insurance can assist you in the event of an accident or sickness preventing you from undertaking your work by providing you with a weekly benefit of up to 85% of your ongoing weekly income. The policy can also be extended to include a capital lump sum benefit in the event of permanent disability or death.

Unlike Workers Compensation this type of policy is typically a 24 / 7 policy providing you with cover in your personal time. Whilst a personal accident & sickness policy covers you for a continuation of a portion of your salary, it typically doesnt cover your medical expenses associated with an injury or sickness.

The business continuation expenses insurance can be taken as an extension of this policy or as a stand alone policy in its own right. This particular cover helps protect your business by paying for the costs associated with keeping your business running whilst you recover from an accident or sickness claim.

General Advice Warning - General advice on this website has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on the advice, you should consider its appropriateness to your situation. You should also consider our disclosure documents; which include our FSG and may also include Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) for some products. You can read our FSG by following this link.